A Mammoth Problem

SEPTEMBER 24, 2008

The Final Cover

Here is another thing to worry about. The permafrost in Siberia is melting.
I recently did a cover and opener for Stamford Magazine. They were really great people to work with. Hats off to Amy Shroads.
The article was a fascinating mone that detailed the aweful situation in Siberia. Global warming is effecting and melting the permafrost. As the permafrost melts, what lies beneath is just starting to decay. And what is beneath the surface? Dead animals and most prominently, frozen and rotting Wooly Mammoths. The stink is sickening because in bogs all over Siberia, methane gas rises and creates a greenhouse effect that traps heat and speeds up he cycle. One fellow, Sergei Zimov also speculates that the lack of large herbivores such as the mammoths means trees don't get consumed and trampled and these forests are traveling north. Unlike short grass which is covered by snow in the winter, trees are dark and catch the sun's rays and heat up the area which again keeps the cycle going. Sergei is trying to use larger animals such as horses to recreate the environment where plants are consumed and the forests are kept in check.
I am just trying to be an illustrator. What a slacker.

I did a sketch of a side-view of the earth with a mammoth underground. This was chosen as in interior and the cover was a more simple and powerful image of a Mammoth.
I had a blast doing it. Still, now I have to worry about this?
Think happy thoughts...think happy thoughts.

Rough of mammoth cover

unused sketch

approved sketch

The cover without type

Glorious!

This is the interior sketch. I think it was going to be the cover at first but perhaps it was thought to be gross. That's my hunch.